Paper-feeding mechanism.



PATENTED JAN. .10, 1905.

0. A. JUENGST. PAPER FEEDING MECHANISM.

APPLIOATION FILED JAN. 18. 1902.

Patented January 10, 1905.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES A. JUENGST, OF CROTON FALLS, NEW YORK.

PAPER-FEEDING MECHANISM.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. $79,784, dated January 10, 1905.

Original application filed July 18, 1900, Serial No. 24,017. Divided and this application filed January 18, 1902. Serial No. 90,267.

To all whom it may concern:-

Be it known that I, CHARLES A. J UENGST, a citizen of the United States, residing at Oroton Falls, in the county of 'VVestchester and State of New York, have invented an Improvement in Paper-Feeding Mechanism, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to devices for gathering signatures and sheets from superimposed piles and delivering the same upon a conveyor device; and the object of my invention is to provide an adjustability for the gripper-jaws accommodating them to the thickness of signatures or sheets and to provide suitable devices for operating the grippers.

In carrying out my invention 1 provide pivoted gripper devices with gripper-fingers and devices for moving the same toward and from the superimposed pile of signatures or sheets and also for opening and closing the grippers to engage, remove, and then drop the signatures or sheets; also, devices for adjusting the relation of the gripper-jaws to one another to provide for signatures or sheets of varying thicknesses.

In the drawings, Figure 1 represents, by an elevation and partial section, parts of a Sigma ture-gathering machine embodying my improvements. Fig. 2 is a plan of so much of the machine shown in Fig. l as may be necessary for fully understanding the same, and Fig. 3 is a sectional plan at 00 an of Fig. 1.

This application is a division of an application for a signature-gathering machine filed July 18, 1900, Serial No. 24,017. I

(0 represents a base-frame of the machine, and a and (o bracket-frames, and at the upper ends of the bracket-frames a are head-bearings a for a shaft 9, hereinafter referred to.

Z) represents parts of a conveyer device upon which the signatures or sheets 6 are delivered and by which they are removed. These conveyer devices are in suitable ways provided upon and supported by the base-frame a. This base-frame also carries a shaft 0, on one end of which is a crank-disk 0 and cam 0 adjacent to one another, the crank-disk 0 performing the function of swinging the gripper devices and the cam c of opening and closing the grippers.

d represents a bed or plate for apile of superimposed signatures or sheets (Z, c a bar of the bracket-frame a and e a stop-plate connected thereto and against which the advancing edges of the signatures or sheets bear.

f is a pneumatic sucker device pivotally mounted on a shaft f which swings the same.

So far the parts described form no essential portion of my present invention.

The shaft 9 in the head-bearings a is adapted to oscillate. This movementis effected by a crank-arm 2 and a rod 3, which at one end is pivotally connected to the free end of the crank-arm 2 and at the other end is pivoted to the crank-disk c.

is a shaft, and 17 bracket-arms, in one end of which the shaft 1' is pivoted, the other ends of said bracket-arms being secured to the shaft 9. On one end of the shaft t' is a crank-arm 0', and a rod 9* is at one end pivotally connected to the free end of the crank-arm 1' and at its other end carries a roller 7 bearing upon the surface or periphery of the cam 0 A spring 8, secured at one end to the bracketframe a at its free end, enters a notch in the rod r above the roller 7, performing the func tion of holding the rod and the roller against the periphery of the cam, but yielding for the performance of the functions of the cam.

Upon the shaft v is a bracket-arm 9, secured at its hub to said shaft. A sleeve 10 is provided with a pin which passes through the hub on the free end of the bracketarm 9. A rod 11 passes freelythrough the sleeve 10. Its upper end is threaded, and a head 12 screws on the upper threaded end of said rod, and there is preferably a clamping-nut above this head. A nut 14 screws upon a threaded portion of the rod 11, and between this end 14 and the sleeve 10 there is a helical spring 13 around the rod 11. This spring is under tension between the sleeve 10 and the nut let, so as to hold the head 12 tightly against the upper surface of the sleeve 10. This nut may be moved along the rod 11 to apply more or less tension to the spring 13, and the head 12 may be moved more or less along the rod 11 to change the adjusted relation of the rod 11 to the sleeve 10. The lower end of the rod 11 is threaded and screws into a head 15, there being a nut 16 for clamping the position of l the parts with reference to one another. An adjustability, if desired, of the rod 11 in its relation to the head 15 may at this latter point be effected; but I prefer that the adjustability be effected at the upper end of the rod 11 by the parts hereinbefore described.

The machine may be provided with one or a series of gripper-arms Z', secured to the oscillating shaft r The lower end of the gripperarm Zr is provided with a head Z1, with a guide 17, and with astationary grim er-finger 18, and at its lower end with a pivot-pin 19. A gripper-arm Z is secured by the pivot-pin 19 to the head Z1 at the lower end of the gripper-arm Z1, and said arm at its forward end carries a gripper 21 and at its other end is connected to the head 15 by a pivot-pin 20.

I have shown in the drawings double radial arms it it, with hub centers through which the shaft g passes and to which the arms are secured and with hub ends for bars 4 5, the bar 5 being provided with a groove 6, as shown, and I have also shown a stop-arm m, connected by a pivot-pin 22 to the gripper-arm Z, the free end of which stop-arm m is provided with a hook at, and a link 0'1 at one end pivotally connected to the bracket-arm 9 and at its lower end loosely pivoted to the arm on, and there is a detector-rod 0 at its upper end pivoted to the stop-arm m and passing through the guide 17 and at its lower end provided with a hook located in openings in the gripper-fingers 18 and 21.

The arm m and the parts associated therewith move with the gripper-arm Z1, and the hook on of the arm m is adapted to engage the groove 6 of the arm 5 when the grippers have failed to engage a signature or sheet and by such engagei'nent to swing the radial double arms /t it and effect the stopping of the machine; but these devices, as well as the devices actuated thereby for stopping the machine, form the subject of a separate application, which is also a divisional application of my former application, Serial No. 24,017.

In the position of the parts as shown .in Fig. l the grippers are open. The gripper-arm Z: and the parts connected therewith are swung forward toward the superimposed pile of signatures or sheets by the crank-arm 2, connecting-rod 3, the disk 0, and the shaft 0. As these devices move toward the signatures or sheets and just at the time that the open grippers pass over the edge of the signature or sheet the gripper-lingers are closed upon the signature or sheet by the crank-arm 7', the rod 0", the cam 0 and the shaft 0' moving the shaft Z and swinging the bracket-arm 9, the rod 11, and gripper-arm Z and the parts connected therewith independent of the movement of the gripper-arm Z1 so as to close the gripper-fingers and engage the signature or sheet and to remain closed by virtue of the operative surface of the cam 0" until the gripper-arm has been moved in the opposite direction by the shaft 9, the crank-arm 2, connecting-rod 3, and disk 0 to almost the position shown by full lines in Fig. 1, when the cam 0 will again effect the operation of the gripper-arm Z and the gripper-finger 21 to open the same and discharge the signature or sheet upon the conveyer device 66' for the removal thereof.

From the foregoing description it will be apparent that the upper end of the rod 11 passes freely through the sleeve 10 and that when the shaft 2' is turned and the bracket 9 swung the pressure applied by this movement to the sleeve 10 bears upon the spring 13 to compress the spring. Sufficient tension is applied to this spring so that this movement has no compressive action, but at once moves the rod 11 downward and swings the gripper arm Z on its pivot-pin 19 to bring the movable gripper-finger toward the fixed gripper-Hm ger, so as to take hold of the signature or sheet. Should the adjusted relation of these parts not be made with sufficient accuracy to bring the gripper-fingers together into just the desired relation and should there be any excess movement of the sleeve 10 with reference to the rod 11, which would tend to apply a considerable pressure to the gripper-fin gers, then the spring 13 will yield to take up this excess movement or compressive action, so that no injury can result to the gripper fingers or to the signature or sheet held thereby.

I claim as my invention 1. In a paper-feeding mechanism, the combination with an oscillating shaft and a swinging gripper-arm, and means for moving the same, of a fixed gripper-finger carried by the gripper-arm, a gripper-finger pivotally connected to saic gripper-arm and coacting with the fixed gripper-linger, and means having an adjustable relation supported by said oscillating shaft and coacting with said movable gripper-finger for adjusting the relation of the gripper-lingers to accommodate different thicknesses of signatures or sheets.

2. In a papei feeding' mechanism, the combination with an oscillating shaft and a swinging gripper-arm and means for moving the same, of a fixed gripper-finger carried by the gripper-arm, a gripper-finger pivotally connected to said gripper-arm and coacting with the fixed gripper-linger, means having an adjustable relation supported by said oscillating shaft and coacting with said movable gripperfinger for adjusting the relation of the gripper-fingers to accommodate different thick nesses of signatures or sheets, and means adapted to yield under excess of pressure applied to the griywer-fingers.

3. In a paper-feeding mechanism, the combination with an oscillating shaft and a swinging gripper-arm and means for moving the same, of a fixed gripper-finger carried by the IIS gripper-arm, a gripper-finger pivotally'connected to said gripper-arm and coacting with the fixed gripper-finger, a rod pivotally connected to a part of the movable gripper-finger, means pivotally connecting the upper end of the rod to the said oscillating shaft, means for adjusting the relation lengthwise of the rod to said latter supporting device, and means also applying tension to said parts and which means are adapted to yield under excess of pressure applied to the gripper-fingers.

4. In a paper-feeding mechanism, the combination with an oscillating shaft, a gripperarm secured thereto and a fixed gripper-finger at the lower end of said arm, of a movable gripper-finger pivoted to the lower end of said gripper-arm, means for opening and closing said gripper-fingers, a rod having threaded portions, means for pivotally connecting the same to the'movable gripper-finger, a shaft connected to the devices for opening and closing the' grippers, a bracket-arm connected to said shaft, a sleeve pivotally connected to said bracket-arm and through which the upper end of the aforesaid threaded rod passes, and means connected to the said rod and coacting with the said sleeve for adjusting the position of the said rod and sleeve and for applying tension with the adjustment.

5. In a paper-feeding mechanism, the combination with an oscillating shaft, a gripperarm secured thereto and a fixed gripper-finger at the lower end of said arm, of a movable gripper-finger pivoted to the lower end of said gripper-arm, means for opening and closing said gripper fingers, a rod having threaded portions, means for pivotally connecting the same to the movable gripper-fin ger, a shaft connected to the devices for opening and closing the grippers, a bracket-arm connected to said shaft, a sleeve pivotally connected to said bracket-arm and through which the upper end of the aforesaid threaded rod passes, a threaded head upon said rod above said sleeve, and a nut clamping the position of the same, a nut 14 on the threaded part of said rod, and a helical spring 13 surrounding said ro'd between the nut 14 and said sleeve for adjusting the relation of the rod to the sleeve and consequentlyeifecting the relation of the movable and closed gripper-fingers and also for applying tension so that there is a yielding function of the sleeve with reference to the rod under excess pressure applied to the gripper-finger.

6. In a paper-feeding mechanism, the combination with an oscillating shaft, a gripperarm and fixed gripper-finger and means for swinging the same, of a pivoted moving gripper-finger, a shaft 2', bracket-arms connecting the same to the oscillating shaft, devices interposed between the shaft-2' and the movable gripper-finger for swinging the movable gripper-finger and for effecting the adjustable relation of the same to the fixed gripper-finger, a crank-arm connected to the shaft 2', a rod at one end pivotally connected to the free end of said crank-arm, a cam 0 a shaft on which said cam is mounted, means at the other end of the said rod adapted to bear on the periphery of the said cam, and means for maintaining the end of said rod in contact with the surface of said cam.

7. In a paper-feeding mechanism, the combination with a fixed gripper-finger, of a gripper-arm and movable gripper-finger pivotally connected to the support of the fixed gripperfinger, a head 15 pivotally connected to the opposite end of the gripper-arm, a rod 11 at one end secured to the head 15, a bracket-arm 9 and means for swinging the same, a sleeve 10 pivotally connected to the bracket-arm 9 and through which the upper end of the rod 11 passes, the upper end of said rod having screw-threaded portions, a threaded head 12 on said rod 11 above the sleeve 10, and a locknut above said head, a nut 14 movable longitudinally upon a threaded portion of said rod 11, and a helical spring 13 surrounding said rod between the nut and the under surface of the sleeve 10, substantially as set-forth.

Signed at Croton Falls, in the county of VVestchester and State of New York, this 22d day of August, A. D. 1901.

CHARLES A. J UENGST. Witnesses:

E. T. THOMAS, L. HENSEL. 

